The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Important to push the CORE Act
By Mark Reaman
With no shortage of uncertainty after the change in presidential administrations, there is some wondering about what might happen with the recent environmental protections of the regional Thompson Divide land.
The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reported last week that “Last year’s withdrawal of the Thompson Divide region from future oil and gas leasing are headed for possible reconsideration based on one of several orders issued by new Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to implement directives issued by President Trump to boost domestic energy production…Among the impediments identified in Burgum’s order for review are recent Bureau of Land Management regulations to reform oil and gas leasing and promote conservation and landscape health…Burgum’s order didn’t single out any specific national monuments or mineral withdrawals for action. Responding to a Daily Sentinel inquiry, an Interior Department spokesperson declined to elaborate beyond the information provided in the department’s release and Burgum’s written orders.”
The Biden administration acted to protect nearly 220,000 acres in the Thompson Divide region, including acreage in Garfield, Pitkin and Gunnison counties, from future oil and gas leasing and other mineral development for 20 years under the administrative mineral withdrawal.
We asked High Country Conservation Advocates advocacy director Jon Hare what he expected with the order and if Mt. Emmons would be impacted. He said Red Lady will not see major concerns given the complexity of the agreements made between the Mt. Emmons Mining Company (MEMC), the local governments and the Crested Butte Land Trust (CBLT) to protect the mountain from future mining.
“The recent Thompson Divide Mineral Withdrawal protects over 100,000 acres of Federal public lands in Gunnison County managed by the USFS and the BLM including land on Red Lady,” said Hare. “The mining company obtained 540 acres of Federal land on Red Lady in the 2024 Mt. Emmons Land Exchange and immediately placed the newly private lands under Conservation Easement and Mineral Extinguishment through CBLT. With current and future mining practices, the molybdenum ore within Red Lady could only be mined from those MEMC owned private properties which are conserved and extinguished through CBLT.
“Another layer to the CBLT protections is that they are enforceable by the Town of Crested Butte and Gunnison County further putting the most important protections in the hands of the local entities,” continued Hare. “Finally, it takes water to mine molybdenum — a big part of the Red Lady protections includes that MEMC relinquished the water rights needed for any potential future mining operations. The mine has now leased water from the town and has, what we believe, will be enough water to continue the necessary long-term reclamation of Mt Emmons.”
CBLT executive director Jake Jones agrees. “All of the development rights, including the right to mine that area, were extinguished voluntarily by the landowner,” he noted. “I don’t see how a reversal of the Thompson Divide withdrawal could change anything on the Mt. Emmons conserved parcel.”
Hare said it was important to keep pushing for protections. “It’s now important to advance the Colorado Outdoor Recreation Economy (CORE) Act which would make the Thompson Divide Mineral Withdrawal a law. The most effective land protections are layered and interwoven,” he said. “The environmental analysis for the TDMW (Thompson Divide Mineral Withdrawal) clearly demonstrates the economic rationale that these public lands are far more profitable for agriculture, recreation, watersheds, and jobs than for drilling or mining. Even the industry has acknowledged they have no interest in drilling or mining on public lands from Gunnison to Carbondale.”
